Shawn Marek
Shawn Marek returns for his second year as the Presidents’ head cross country and track & field coach in 2012-13.
In just two seasons, Marek has sent six athletes to NCAA Division III championship events, including Kristen Galligan '15, who became the first cross country All-American in school history (male or female) in 2012. Galligan, the first Presidents' Athletic Conference Cross Country champion in history, placed 12th of 277 runners at the championship event, improving 179 spots from her first appearance during her freshman year.
In addition, Scott Ryan '13 made his second-straight cross country national championship appearance after claiming his first PAC title.
During his first cross country season, Marek helped Ryan and Galligan qualify for the NCAA Division III National Championship, the first time in school history that W&J was represented in the championship event.
In the spring, Marek guided the men's track & field team to a second-place finish at the PAC Championships. The women garnered third place. W&J took home 10 conference individual championships and four of the six league athlete of the year awards, including all three men's honors.
2012 graduate C.J. Corcoran qualified for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships and placed 19th in the javelin event. During the indoor season, 2012 graduate Taylor Hockman earned a spot in the long jump national championship field and finished 11th overall.
Marek, the second full-time cross country/track & field head coach in school history, spent two years as the head coach for both sports at Salem College in Winston Salem, N.C prior to joining W&J.
Marek led the 2009 Salem College cross country program to a second-place finish at the Great South Athletic Conference Championships. In addition, his cross country teams earned All-Academic Team laurels from the USTFCCCA in 2009 and 2010. Marek played a valuable role in helping form the college’s first-ever track & field team during the 2010-11 academic year.
Marek, who served as Salem College’s Fitness Director as well as an adjunct professor, also worked as an elementary physical education teacher since 2006 in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools. In April 2009, Marek was recognized for “Excellence In Teaching” by the Winston-Salem Journal.
A 2000 graduate of Saint Bonaventure University, Marek was a co-captain for the Bonnies’ NCAA Division I cross country squad. The 1999 Cross Country Team MVP, Marek earned a master’s degree in sport administration from Canisius in 2005.
While teaching in the Cheektowaga Central School District in New York (2003-2006), Marek served as the assistant girls’ and boys’ track & field coach. In addition, he also spent one season as an assistant girls’ track & field coach at Manchester-Shortsville Central.
Marek remains an active runner as he was the champion of the 2010 North Carolina Half Marathon. He earned runner-up honors at the 2010 Charlotte Thunder Road Half Marathon in a field of over 3,200 competitors and also placed 489th in the 2010 Boston Marathon (field of 22,672 runners).